If you ever watched movies of WW2, or for a few of you, lived in it. You may remember the record player, or phonograph, from that time period they have the cone on top. Or maybe you’ve seen the RCA dog thats looking at the phonograph curious and slightly bemused. This was the first form of personal amplification of noise. Today though we have a myriad of different devices that amplify noise, but they all have their basis in one tool, speakers.
Have you ever talked on the phone? Listened to music? watched TV or a movie with sound? If you have, you’ve used speakers. I’m not talking just about the big bulky type that shake a house, or the kind my high school friend spent 5 months and untold amount of dollars installing in his car. I’m talking about every speaker we have in the world. They are in churches to amplify church bells, in schools to allow for quick emergency communications, even some buildings have speakers in them just to cancel out white noise (the idea of which I find fascinating as its supposed to allow people to concentrate better).
These loudspeakers were first invented in the late 1880’s (so… less than 150 years old), and they have changed and grown since. It is kind of impossible to me today to imagine the world without speakers. The elevator dings, crosswalk signs, and lecturerer amplification are so much a part of our everyday life that when they are gone something seems off. I noticed this when I was in Tajikistan and rode in perhaps the only elevator in the country and there was no noise when it went by floors. I didn’t know what was going on.
So today as you listen to your earphones, talk on the telephone, ride an elevator, listening to the blind crosswalk sound, hear church bells, or clock strikes take a minute and thank speakers. They do all this and more.
Thank you speakers.